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3 November 2005

4 November News ...

Acqua & Sapone Builds with Fassa Bortolo Help

The Italian based team of Acqua & Sapone will build for next season with some of Fassa Bortolo's infrastructure. Palmiro Masciarelli, Team Manager of Acqua & Sapone, will take on some of the technical staff of Fassa Bortolo as well as the help of Giancarlo Ferretti. Ferretti found himself without a team to manage after the SonyEricsson debacle, but now he will help organize the logistics of Masciarelli's team. Along with some of Ferretti's technical staff will go a few of the riders that he had contracted for the ill-fated SonyEricsson squadra. See the list below for the current 2006 Acqua & Sapone squadra

The other big news for the squadra is the change from Moser: Acqua & Sapone will ride on De Rosa or Masciarelli bikes for 2006, using Shimano components. De Rosa might be rubbing their hands with glee because Ondrej Sosenka is preparing to break his own hour record in 2006. This past July the Czech set the current hour record using a Moser frame. All the details should be sorted out by the first team meeting (20 November), followed by a training camp (10 - 30 January).

Riders Joining:
Andrea Tonti (from Lampre-Caffita)
Giuliano Figueras (from Lampre-Caffita)
Kristjan Fajt (from Tenax-Nobili Rubinetterie)
Luca Celli (from Barloworld-Valsir)
Paolo Valoti (from Domina Vacanze)

Riders Leaving:
Bo Hamburger (to Miche)
Jure Golcer (to Perutnina Ptuj)
Kyrylo Pospyeyev (to Portalupi Salumi)
Ruggero Marzoli (to Lampre ??)

Current Riders:
Alessandro D'Andrea
Alessandro Donati
Alexandr Arekeev
Andrea Masciarelli
Andrea Rossi
Claudio Astolfi
Crescenzo D'Amore
Denis Bertolini
Gabriele Balducci
Giuseppe Palumbo
Jure Golcer
Jure Zrimsek
Leonardo Moser
Mariano Piccoli
Ondrej Sosenka
Rinaldo Nocentini
Santo Anza
Simone Masciarelli
Valery Kobzarenko

Read:
Miche Signs Hamburger and Gerosa, 1 November
What the heck? Ferretti Loses SonyEricsson, 14 October
Ondrej Sosenka Breaks Boardman's Hour Record, 20 July

Mexico and Training for Danilo Di Luca

Danilo Di Luca (29) performed consistent all year and subsequently won the first annual ProTour. The rider for Liquigas-Bianchi laid the foundations for his ProTour lead in the Vuelta Ciclista al Pais Vasco, followed by wins in the Amstel Gold Race and La Flèche Wallonne. However, when the tifosi stop and ask The Killer about his season, they always want to know about the Giro d'Italia, and more specifically, the stage of the Colle delle Finestre (stage 19, 28 May).

That epic stage on the gravel Alpine slopes gave personality to an already great Giro d'Italia. Di Luca pushed hard on that day, along with Gilberto Simoni, to move up into third on the GC. He did not make it due to a leg cramp but it was a fight that the Tifosi won't soon forget. It was also the day that many started to believe The Killer could be a future Giro winner.

Like last winter, Di Luca will soon travel to Mexico for a solid block of warm high altitude training (end of January to middle February). He will not go hard like last winter because his goal is the Giro, and not the spring classics, which comes a little later on the calendar. But he does think that he might have an opportunity at Liège-Bastogne-Liège (23 April), only 13 days from the start of the Giro.

This winter The Killer will work on his time trial abilities, but keeping an eye on his climbing at the same time. He will have an idea of how he needs to tailor his training once the Giro d'Italia route is presented (12 November). Also, he will have to work with the new, still to be named, bike supplier for the squadra. Bianchi will continue to be the second sponsor of the squadra, but they will not supply the bikes.

Read:
2006 Liquigas-Bianchi Squadra, 21 October
ProTour and Renewal for Danilo Di Luca, 18 October

2 November News ...